Senate will try to block California vehicle standards that would phase
out gas-powered cars
[May 21, 2025]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate will move this week to block
California from enforcing a series of vehicle emissions standards that
are tougher than the federal government’s, including first-in-the-nation
rules phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.
Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that the Senate will
begin to consider three House-passed resolutions that would roll back
the standards. Final votes could come as soon as this week.
His announcement came despite significant pushback from Democrats,
questions from some Republicans and the advice of the Senate
Parliamentarian, who has sided with the U.S. Government Accountability
Office in saying California’s policies are not subject to the review
mechanism used by the House.
The resolutions would block California’s rules to phase out the
gas-powered cars, along with standards to cut tailpipe emissions from
medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curb smog-forming nitrogen oxide
pollution from trucks. Like the House, Senate Republicans are using the
Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving congressional
oversight of actions by federal agencies, to try to block the rules. The
Trump administration in 2019 revoked California’s ability to enforce its
own emissions standards, but Biden later restored the state’s authority.
Republicans have argued that the rules effectively dictate standards for
the whole country, imposing what would eventually be a nationwide
electric vehicle mandate. Around a dozen states have already followed
California’s lead.
Thune called it an “improper expansion” of the federal Clean Air Act
that would “endanger consumers, our economy and our nation’s energy
supply.”
California for decades has been given the authority to adopt vehicle
emissions standards that are stricter than the federal government’s.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced plans in 2020 to ban
the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles within 15 years as part of an
aggressive effort to lower emissions from the transportation sector.
Plug-in hybrids and used gas cars could still be sold.
The Biden administration approved the state’s waiver to implement the
standards in December, a month before President Donald Trump returned to
office. The California rules are stricter than a Biden-era rule that
tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric
vehicles.
Biden's EPA said in announcing the decision that opponents of the
California waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either
the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was
inconsistent with the Clean Air Act.
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Charging bays are seen at the new Electrify America indoor
electric vehicle charging station in San Francisco, Wednesday, Feb.
7, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
Newsom has evoked Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, who signed
landmark environmental laws, as he has fought congressional
Republicans and the Trump administration on the issue.
“The United States Senate has a choice: cede American car-industry
dominance to China and clog the lungs of our children, or follow
decades of precedent and uphold the clean air policies that Ronald
Reagan and Richard Nixon fought so hard for," he said in a statement
after Thune's announcement.
Senate Democrats have strongly pushed back on the GOP effort.
California Sen. Alex Padilla said Tuesday that he will place holds
on four pending EPA nominations over “reckless attempts” to roll
back the rules.
Padilla, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats
also spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon in protest.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said that taking the vote under the Congressional
Review Act — meaning Republicans only need a simple majority and no
Democratic votes — against the parliamentarian’s wishes is akin to
“going nuclear," a term both parties used when Democrats voted to
lower the vote threshold for executive and lower court judicial
nominations in 2013 and when Republicans voted to lower the
threshold for Supreme Court confirmations in 2017.
“Legislation to repeal these waivers should be subject to a 60-vote
threshold,” Schumer said.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said he's concerned about
precedent. "We are opening up a Pandora's Box of multiple abuses,"
Whitehouse said.
Thune said that any concerns over the process are misplaced, and
noted that Democrats tried and failed to eliminate the Senate
filibuster when Biden was president.
“We are not talking about doing anything to erode the institutional
character of the Senate,” Thune said. “In fact, we are talking about
preserving the Senate’s prerogatives.”
___
Associated Press writer Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California,
contributed to this report.
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